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Liberty Elementary students celebrate abilities

The students at Liberty Elementary are celebrating their knowledge and educational capabilities through Project Dumbo Drop, a STEM challenge that combines their recent Science Unit, Forces and Motion, with mathematical calculations of speed.

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Liberty Elementary students celebrate abilities

Robin Sloan, For The Leaf-Chronicle
Published 1:59 p.m. CT May 5, 2016

Liberty Elementary School fifth graders Derick Weller, left, and Brandon Boyd watch as their gingerbread house is dropped from a bucket truck 40 feet in the air. The house tied to a parachute was simulated a portable classroom drop that the Army does in remote locations.(Photo: Ayrika Whitney / The Leaf-Chroni)

The students at Liberty Elementary are celebrating their knowledge and educational capabilities through Project Dumbo Drop, a STEM challenge that combines their recent Science Unit, Forces and Motion, with mathematical calculations of speed.

The assignment tasked students with creating a parachute-drop system that would allow the Army to successfully deliver portable classrooms to a remote village. Students were given a budget of $60 and were instructed to be creative and to think outside of the box. “Students have been taught Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and how they affect someone who may be parachuting,” teacher Jessica Patterson said. “The students participate in scaffolding activities such as parachute simulations and a penny drop with coffee filters that help them understand air resistance. After completing these lab practices, students are introduced to the STEM Challenge.”

The project was inspired by nearby Fort Campbell and the international work being done by local soldiers to aid communities in need around the globe. Patterson notes that the project was particularly close to Liberty students because of their personal connection to the United States Army.

“We thought this would be a good fit for our students because of our close relationship with Fort Campbell Army Base,” Patterson said. “So many students are part of the military.”

For Liberty Elementary students, however, the project has come to represent not only their educational accomplishments, but their personal accomplishments as well.

Liberty special education aide Christy Carnall spends each day with the students and shared her feelings on why the students of Liberty embraced the project so eagerly.

“These are students that don’t always get a lot of attention or recognition, but day in and day out they’re here, they’re working hard, and they’re growing,” Carnall said. “They deserve to be recognized and praised for their hard work!”

Project participant Brandon Boyd said that the challenge not only taught him about STEM principles, but about working as part of a team.

“I learned that my group needed to communicate better about our plans for the parachute,” Boyd said. “The hardest part of the drop was getting your parachute to connect to the portable we were delivering. It was fun and shocking because you never know if your parachute is going to work on not. We learned a lot from the test runs to make changes, but it wasn’t enough to get our portable to the ground safely. We needed to work together to figure it out.”

The problem-solving was part of the fun for Brandon.

“The most fun part of the challenge was building the parachute,” he said. “If I could do it again I would use pipe cleaner and string to hold the parachute open.”